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The Archive of Lost Dreams
Alternate cover edition 9781465982490
Four short paranormal tales.
The Archive of Lost Dreams: a little girl discovers the importance of dreams and wishes.
Roses Are Red: Nineteen year old Loren meets her guardian angel who is struggling with jealousy issues.
Don’t Even Peep: Eight year old Susan investigates the secrets in her Victorian home.
Round, Round The Fairy Ring: Seven year old Abigail’s new baby sister is replaced with a fairy changeling.
Four short paranormal tales.
The Archive of Lost Dreams: a little girl discovers the importance of dreams and wishes.
Roses Are Red: Nineteen year old Loren meets her guardian angel who is struggling with jealousy issues.
Don’t Even Peep: Eight year old Susan investigates the secrets in her Victorian home.
Round, Round The Fairy Ring: Seven year old Abigail’s new baby sister is replaced with a fairy changeling.
Unknown Binding
First published December 14, 2011
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
December 19, 2011
Before I start, I think it's fair to let you know that Lissa and I have been friends for some time, having gone through uni together. Also, I've previously read two of these stories (Roses are Red, Don't Even Peep). I have tried to be as fair and as honest as possible in this review.
The style of each story is quite different, and so I'm going to give each one it's own mini review, with an overall review at the end.
The Archive of Lost Dreams
4/5
I really enjoyed this. I like how real life seems more surreal than the dream life of the mc (also the narrator), done by using such devices as using no speech marks in the real life segments. The description also seems richer in the dream segments.
The girl worrying about not having her pen license made me smile, I thought her worry about such things very sweet and real to life.
I particularly liked that this story causes you look at yourself a little, and to bring to mind some of your lost (or almost lost) dreams.
The reason I've given it 4/5 is because there were a couple of times in this story where I needed to reread because of poor sentence structure/missing information:
"Books on shelves that extend from the red-carpeted floor to the high vaulted ceiling painted a textured cream."
What is painted cream? I think it must be the ceiling, but the sentence structure makes me half-wonder if it's the book shelves. Adding a "which was" after "ceiling" would have made it clearer without detracting from the flow of the writing.
"We kick around the ball for a while and then we play soccer like hooligans, flailing our arms and shouting at each other. A car drives into the cul-de-sac and we pick up the ball and run to the footpath and wave to the driver. The car leaves the cul-de-sac and we take the ball back on to the road."
At firt I was totally confused with this because I didn't know they were playing street soccer, assuming instead that they were in a backyard.
They are just little things, however, and don't detract from the story as a whole.
Roses are Red
3/5
Some people will love this far more than I do. The three stars are primarily based on the subject matter. I love angel stories, and have heard lots, but I'm not particularly into stories about "fallen angels" or angels who fall in love with humans. It's just not my cup of tea.
Positives: I liked the tension in the story. I also like the ending, I feel it stops the story from being too cliched. Bear in mind though that I haven't read many stories like this, and I could be totally off in my assessment.
The switching between the two viewpoints worked well in this story.
Don't Even Peep
5/5
This story is a little like an old friend. I first read it in (I think) 2007, and again last year, and I really enjoy it.
One thing this story always makes me wonder is .
Round, Round, the Fairy Ring
5/5
I totally lurve the way this story begins! And I think that way it continues is pretty awesome too! I love fairy stories, and stories about little tiny people, and this one was no disappointment at all. Oh gosh, how I want to
In General:
Lissa has a very unique writing style: simple and to the point. I think, reading other comments and observations that this is fairly common for Australian writers? (As an Aussie, I feel I should know this.)
I enjoy how plot driven her writing is, and in short stories this can be particularly important. Each story has a good pace and rhythm, even in Roses are Red where .
A few times I got confused due to the structure of a sentence or a sequence (the main ones being noted above). I also found a couple of descriptions to by clunky (e.g. "gardening her delicate little flowers" - I felt that the two adjectives weren't needed, and even that no adjectives at all would have been fine).
I felt that we were told things (as opposed to shown) a little too often (particularly in Roses are Red), but this is one of the dangers of writing in first person, and not neccesarily a shortcoming of the author. It definitely has not turned me off reading more of her work in the future (and, in fact, I have read all her Tina Storm short stories so far, which I thoroughly enjoyed).
Overall, 4.5/5
The style of each story is quite different, and so I'm going to give each one it's own mini review, with an overall review at the end.
The Archive of Lost Dreams
4/5
I really enjoyed this. I like how real life seems more surreal than the dream life of the mc (also the narrator), done by using such devices as using no speech marks in the real life segments. The description also seems richer in the dream segments.
The girl worrying about not having her pen license made me smile, I thought her worry about such things very sweet and real to life.
I particularly liked that this story causes you look at yourself a little, and to bring to mind some of your lost (or almost lost) dreams.
The reason I've given it 4/5 is because there were a couple of times in this story where I needed to reread because of poor sentence structure/missing information:
"Books on shelves that extend from the red-carpeted floor to the high vaulted ceiling painted a textured cream."
What is painted cream? I think it must be the ceiling, but the sentence structure makes me half-wonder if it's the book shelves. Adding a "which was" after "ceiling" would have made it clearer without detracting from the flow of the writing.
"We kick around the ball for a while and then we play soccer like hooligans, flailing our arms and shouting at each other. A car drives into the cul-de-sac and we pick up the ball and run to the footpath and wave to the driver. The car leaves the cul-de-sac and we take the ball back on to the road."
At firt I was totally confused with this because I didn't know they were playing street soccer, assuming instead that they were in a backyard.
They are just little things, however, and don't detract from the story as a whole.
Roses are Red
3/5
Some people will love this far more than I do. The three stars are primarily based on the subject matter. I love angel stories, and have heard lots, but I'm not particularly into stories about "fallen angels" or angels who fall in love with humans. It's just not my cup of tea.
Positives: I liked the tension in the story. I also like the ending, I feel it stops the story from being too cliched. Bear in mind though that I haven't read many stories like this, and I could be totally off in my assessment.
The switching between the two viewpoints worked well in this story.
Don't Even Peep
5/5
This story is a little like an old friend. I first read it in (I think) 2007, and again last year, and I really enjoy it.
One thing this story always makes me wonder is .
Round, Round, the Fairy Ring
5/5
I totally lurve the way this story begins! And I think that way it continues is pretty awesome too! I love fairy stories, and stories about little tiny people, and this one was no disappointment at all. Oh gosh, how I want to
In General:
Lissa has a very unique writing style: simple and to the point. I think, reading other comments and observations that this is fairly common for Australian writers? (As an Aussie, I feel I should know this.)
I enjoy how plot driven her writing is, and in short stories this can be particularly important. Each story has a good pace and rhythm, even in Roses are Red where .
A few times I got confused due to the structure of a sentence or a sequence (the main ones being noted above). I also found a couple of descriptions to by clunky (e.g. "gardening her delicate little flowers" - I felt that the two adjectives weren't needed, and even that no adjectives at all would have been fine).
I felt that we were told things (as opposed to shown) a little too often (particularly in Roses are Red), but this is one of the dangers of writing in first person, and not neccesarily a shortcoming of the author. It definitely has not turned me off reading more of her work in the future (and, in fact, I have read all her Tina Storm short stories so far, which I thoroughly enjoyed).
Overall, 4.5/5
August 7, 2016
I thoroughly enjoyed this series of short stories. Covering a range of paranormal situations, and narrated by children or young adult characters, the stories are fast paced and very easy to read. I'm looking forward to reading more of Bilyk's work in the future!
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews